How Plarn bags help Veterans
Social Entrepreneur: Deana Pudelko Vet house is a unique non-profit organisation serving homeless veterans in Danbury, Ct. It is not a shelter, but a 12-month program is providing contemporary living quarters in a group environment, assistance in job hunting, transportation, personal skills and development guidance. In this program, they are upcycling plastic bags into Plarn Backpacks for the residents at the "Vet House" which is run by MCCA. The MCCA organization collects donations and once a week delivers care packages of personal supplies to homeless veterans in addition to the providing care packages for those who come through their program for veterans. These backpacks can also be used to bring personal supplies to a homeless tent city that is in a nearby city. Our Founder Matt Crocket had an interview with the project leader Deana Pudelko and Valerie Morrison to get an insight of the project. Part of the Interview Matt: Why this project is important and how plarn bags can help Veterans and Make the World Great Deana:. Because the veterans shelter needs durable, water resistant bags Matt: And why is that? Deana: The Homeless shelter is partnering with organisations in the area to create “Care-packages” of personal supplies (soap, deodorant, toiletries, etc.) for veterans who come to their program with nothing or to take up to a homeless tent city in New Milford to distribute. When you are out in the elements and have to carry things you need to protect them as much as possible. Matt: Why? Deana: The Homeless shelter’s mission is to serve veterans to give them a hand up, connect them with services and provide help to those who may be in danger of committing suicide. The last statistics in 2014 show that on average 20 Veterans a day commit suicide. If we can do something such as showing we care maybe this will not happen. Matt: Why would they do self-harm? Deana: Although we do not know why someone would self harm. The high rate among Veterans especially in the Vietnam era could indicate that the treatment that they received from society when they came back from war and the lack of treatment for their PTSD could be a reason. More recent veterans suffer from medical issues such as injuries and PTSD do not get proper treatment or cannot find adequate medical help so sometimes they resort to self medicating with drugs and alcohol or take their lives. Sometimes the drug and alcohol abuse leads to prison. This does not help them get a job so they end up homeless and often feel helpless. Matt: Why do they end up this way? Deana: Why Good question – as leader of the free world America sacrifices a huge amount of its money and its people’s lives and mental health to keep the world free and safe it’s tough being the leader – it’s an awesome responsibility. We need to do something to fix it. The government is not doing the job and we have responsibility to help those who serve and protect our country. There should never be a homeless not cared for veteran. Matt: What do you do? Deana: We do a little part to let them know we are here. The one thing we thought about was how do we help. A lady at our church was working with a local prison inmates crocheting mats for homeless that they can sleep on out of plastic bags. After a visit to the local Veterans shelter and speaking to the director I found out they needed small string back packs to deliver the supplies and make care packages. So I put the two together. Since we are looking for ways to keep the bags out of the landfill - I asked for donations at work of plastic bags so we could start this project. The basic process we are using: We Collect plastic bags * Sort them into like colours and sizes * Cut them into strips * Tie the strips together (Plarn) * Wrap it into a big ball (Plarn ball) * Crochet it into a plastic backpack * Give it to the shelter Matt: What does this achieve? Deana: Keep plastic bags out of the landfill and help the environment and help the people it's a win/win What’s our goal Help as many people as we can. Ideally, by Christmas, we would have created 20 crochet bags, stocked them with personal hygiene products and donated them to the veterans shelter. Since these bags are very durable and weather resistant this is very good item to have for a homeless person. Hopefully it will give them hope to see that someone has taken time to crochet a bag especially for them. If we can give a little hope by taking some time to make these bags maybe - just maybe - they might feel there is something for them and maybe just maybe they will get help! Our ulterior motive The “Vet House” Shelter isn’t well known, so I’m helping them get what they need to ramp up and achieve their goal http://mccaonline.com/affordable-housing-for-vets-in-danbury-ct/ Matt: How this all started? A service project at church gave Deana the idea, and she started working with the Girl Scouts on it as five-year-olds can make Plarn. It’s a family activity as well so everyone can take part in to do one little thing to make the world great. Interesting facts about this organisation. It can be fun and help with life skills... I brought this to my Girl Scout troop (5-12 year olds) and it was amazing to see the girls so focused. An hour and half went by and there was total silence as they flattened, folded, cut and then connected the pieces to make the plarn balls. They did not want to leave and asked to do it the next meeting. Some of them learned to crochet as well. They also were excited to be part of upcycling bags and the service project we are doing for the veterans. Learning these skills like tying knots and crocheting are useful to life and often are not taught. As for adults we have had several sessions of plarn making and the same thing happened with adults! It can take 60-70 plastic bags to make one of the backpacks the size we need. We collect supplies to donate with the backpacks so it does not really cost much to do since the bags are coming from normal shopping. We do ask for donations of hygiene products to put in the back packs (non- alcoholic) mouthwash, small bars of soap, shampoo, razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, brushes, etc. Little things can change peoples lives.... Why Hikipedia is publishing this: Hikipedia's mission is to Make the World Great. As a non-profit organisation we decided to publish this and help Deana with digital promotion and fundraising to help her Make the World Great in her own way, faster. Hikipedia retains 10% of donations to ensure 90% goes directly to the causes we support - so our donors money can do the most help for the cause they love, and support us to achieve our mission. Donate here and we can help Deana help the Veterans together! If you are or know an organization which Makes the World Great or have an idea about how we as humanity can be great, please let us know. You can submit your idea here and when we're able to help you with it we can Make the World Great together. Together we are stronger!